The Pessimiss published in Schon!

I’ve been nattering about this since late last year, and finally it has been published!

Schon! is a seriously stylish London-based magazine that is sold in almost 200 countries the world over, and this month I am in it! It’s my first feature, let alone my first feature in an international magazine, so I am pretty excited. To approach a magazine of this calibre and have my article published at first pass, nearly 100 % unedited… well, it’s an honour. Schon! is renowned for its edgy, often avant garde content, and is the mouthpiece and showcase for global online fashion network, Nineteen74.

I worked together with Johannesburg-based photographer Brett Rubin to produce the article throughout December and this is the result. The article, ‘The Lay of the Land’, attempts to illustrate the burgeoning potential and evolution of the local fashion industry through the work and opinions of four South African designers – Suzaan Heyns, David West, Stiaan Louw and Christopher Strong(duo Elaine du Plessis and Michael Owen).

I have blogged about it before, but there is a growing shift in focus from the traditional global centres of fashion towards the creative talent to be found in emerging markets; places like Brazil, Turkey and Scandinavia. My idea for the article was to suggest that the South African creative community is shaping up to become a contender in this reimagining of the fashion map. Already my article has sparked some debate, which I view as a positive thing. The article allowed me to write in a slightly more interrogative, academic tone and transported me back to my university days – late nights surrounded by pages aglow with highlighter, empty coffee mugs and lots of earnest typing (and backspacing). And I loved it.

I hope you like it, too. Schon! is available at ‘all good book stores’, which means you can get it at Exclusive Books or Wordsworth, where it retails for R250 (which makes me feel kinda shiny and smug, like I’m one step closer to the Vogue editorial team). Alternatively, you can read it online here. I have a few more Schon! tricks up my sleeve for later in the year, so keep an eye out.